The legal battle over President Donald Trump’s efforts to renovate a Washington, D.C. municipal golf course has officially reached a new pitch.
On Friday afternoon, a federal judge in D.C. announced plans to investigate whether the Trump administration violated ethics rules in its efforts to start construction East Potomac Golf Linksa facility with 36 holes in the capital that has long welcomed the city’s diverse coalition of public golfers.
Judge Ana Reyes, who was appointed to the US District Court in 2023 and has overseen a series of controversial hearings on the administration’s plans to renew the historic course, said she hoped the investigation would clarify whether the administration had been direct in its dealings with the court.
“For months, the court has trusted, but not verified,” said Reyes. “No longer.”
The Reyes investigation — which may also be conducted by a “special master” — will examine whether Justice Department lawyers intentionally misled the court about the administration’s plans for the East Potomac renovation project. At the center of the investigation seems to be the The sudden reversal of the DOJ on the administration’s plans to close the park for renovations. On October 19, DOJ lawyers insisted that the administration had no plans to close the golf course. Nine days later, the administration announced plans to close the golf course for renovations on November 15.
Reyes and the Trump administration have gone head-to-head over the golf course project several times in recent weeks, including a scorching back-and-forth earlier this month after the National Park Service cut down hundreds of trees on the property with little notice. The government said the Park Service’s actions were separate from the renewal efforts, but Reyes didn’t seem convinced.
“I don’t know how it could be clearer,” Reyes said in a hearing on the cutting of the tree. “What happened cost the government all its credibility!”
In a series of social media posts, the president made clear his hopes to move quickly on the new course in East Potomac, which will accommodate several planned projects involving DC’s historic landmarks, including the White House ballroom, the Kennedy Center, and a new “Arc de Triomphe.”
“The current condition of the golf course is a national disgrace,” Trump posted on Social Truth. “But we will make a WORLD CLASS PUBLIC Golf Course that is AFFORDABLE for locals – Just like the Great and Historic Torrey Pines and Bethpage Black Public Courses, only better.”
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To date, the ongoing legal battle with local golfers and preservation groups has slowed the president’s plans at East Potomac, which aim to turn the $42 course into a state-of-the-art facility capable of hosting major championships and Ryder Cups. Trump commissioned his longtime design counterpart, Tom Fazio, to dream up the project, which would eliminate the existing Walter Travis design and the park’s green spaces and bike lanes.
Local golfers have spoken out against the project, arguing that it would price out many of D.C.’s local golfers and destroy what remains of a historic and reversible municipal layout designed by one of the most revered architects of golf’s golden age.